The linguistic, ethnic and sociocultural characteristics of the students in the classroom that I tutor in are very different from my own, and are basically what I expected overall. They vary in multiple ways. When I was in elementary school, middle school and high school I would consider the schools that I attended, somewhat multi cultural but the majority of the students were of Portuguese decent, but at the same time I did attend school with other people from many different ethic groups and with many people who had different sociocultural characteristics than my own. I was used to being around people from all different backgrounds and I am comfortable with that. Therefore it was easy for me to get comfortable when at my school that I tutor at and in my classroom.
The linguistic characteristics of my students vary because of the fact that some of them speak English as a second language, and some live around or with people who do not speak English properly therefore they speak not as well as they should. I have a child who speaks Spanish as her first language. Ironically enough I found that out because she travels to my classroom for our tutoring session, so I checked out her classroom that she travels from and it is one of the bilingual classrooms in the school. During that same day I noticed her walking in the hallway after our tutoring session with a friend and she automatically started speaking Spanish so fast and quickly. I was surprised because although her English is not the most proper, I can always understand her well. What i did observe was she is the student out of my three that has the hardest time who simple vocabulary that the other two students do not. But I thought it was so amazing how a child at 6 years old could actually speak another language other than English so well. For whatever reason it made me happy to hear her speak. I actually had an opportunity to meet with one of the mother's of the of the children I tutor one day. He happens to be my best student as far as academics, and his mother spoke very well and proper, which makes sense that he speaks English well, and from what I can see, is a good student academically. My third student likes to use slang words when she speaks such as " aight" and "k" " nosa" But I know that English is her only language spoke at home. But overall, they can all speak English, but at the same time they could all use some more help. I wanted to point out also that I found an automatic connection to Goldenberg when I heard one of my students speaking Spanish after class that one day. My connection was how I realized that out of my three students, she was the most far behind in our "Reading Buddy" activities. Goldenberg talks about how students seem to fall behind because of the language barriers with speaking one language constantly at home and then English at school. His observation was to teach dual language speaking students in both native and English language.
The ethnic and sociocultural chracteristics that I have observed while tutoring is that right around the time that I am getting ready to leave, the kids have snack time. I tutor in a kindergarten class, and they get to have snack time. It is so interesting to me to see what these kids pack for snacks. They bring things I have never seen before. Home made little sandwitches, and cracker combinations. For example in my household we have certain cookies that are "Portuguese" cookies, so someone from a non Portguese area would probably not know what kind of cookie I was eating. I also find it interesting how some kids snacks and lunch boxes are neatly organized, and some look like they were tossed in a brown ripped, paper bag two seconds before the school bus came to pick the child up in the morning. I think that has to do with the parenting, and how they take care of time managment and organization. Also I always observe how the students come dressed to class. Whose shirts are ironed and whose pants are wrinkled. I think that is telling. A child in a kindergarten class, in my opinion should not be responisble for getting him or herself dressed in the morning and I think that all has to do with the household in which they live. Its obvious that some of these children are less fortunate than others, just by looking at the clothes they wear.
In conclusion, I agree with Goldenberg and to better then English speaking children of our school system we as educators should use both a childs native and the English language when teaching a student. I also think that schools should try to inforce having to wear uniforms so that all children are looked as as equal and all look the same.
2 comments:
Tay,
After reading your blog, I realized that you and I said many of the same things about this prompt. As you stated in the beginning of your post, the school that you went to had linguistic characteristics that were much different than the school that you tutor at. I couldn’t agree more as unlike the elementary school which I attended not all of the students who attend this school speak only English, or at least English as their primary language. My elementary school was basically a school of white children only, but because of how close we were to the University of Rhode Island we often had children attend the school who were of Asian or middle eastern decent as their parents were attending the university. Very, very, rarely did we have children who spoke any amount of Spanish. The observation of the linguistic characteristics which occur in the classroom I volunteer in would revolve around one main point: that many of these students speak another language, predominantly Spanish, and may even speak that language better or more often than English making them English as second language students.
Furthermore, this leads to the fact that we each made the connection to Claude Goldenberg. Although I felt like my students speak English better than the ones Goldenberg references in his article, I so still feel that he would be the theorist which made the most sense to relate to. Goldenberg talks about how students seem to fall behind because of the language barriers with speaking one language constantly at home and then English at school. His observation was to teach dual language speaking students in both native and English language.
Talk to you soon!
Hi Taylor,
You have begun to hone your observation skills. You mention clothing. What do you think wrinkled pants says about a parent? It could mean lack of time management or it could mean lack of time (or lack of an iron). Although we, as teachers, need to be alert to signs of parental neglect, we also have to guard against erroneous assumptions. This is where strong relationships with parents play such a crucial role.
Keep me posted,
Dr. August
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